An ingrown nail causes inflammation because the side edges of the ingrown nail are curved inward to press or dig into a soft tissue (e.g., a toe skin) with pain, which may result in symptoms such as granulation and pyogenesis. It should be noted that many patients with ingrown nails also have pincer nails, the side edges of which curl inward.
There have been proposed typical nail correcting devices for correcting deformed nails such as a pincer nail and an ingrown nail.
A typical example of the nail correcting devices includes a cylindrical body provided with a slit extending from a first end to a second end of the cylindrical body (see Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent No. 5009434).
The cylindrical body of the nail correcting device of Patent Literature 1 includes: plural pairs of holding teeth divided in a longitudinal direction of the cylindrical body by a plurality of dividing grooves circumferentially extending around the cylindrical body from the slit; and connecting pieces that connect the holding teeth.
The holding teeth of each pair face each other across the slit to hold the distal edge of a nail. The nail correcting device is attached by widening the slit and inserting the distal end of a nail to be corrected in the slit.
The plurality of holding teeth of the nail correcting device of Patent Literature 1 are arranged in the longitudinal direction of the cylindrical body from the first end to the second end, and each hold the distal edge of the nail.
However, although nail shape and nail thickness vary from person to person, a distance between distal edges of the holding teeth for holding a nail is set at a predetermined value.
It is thus difficult to attach the nail correcting device to the nails of some people. For instance, whereas the average nail thickness of humans is approximately 0.7 mm, the distance between the distal edges of the holding teeth is in a range from 1.0 to 1.2 mm. Although the distance between the distal edges of the holding teeth is slightly larger than the average nail thickness, the plurality of holding teeth can reliably hold a nail due to the curvature of the nail when the nail correcting device is attached to the nail. The nail correcting device is thus unlikely to be detached.
However, some men have thick nails with a thickness of approximately 2.0 mm. When the distance between the distal edges is in a range from 1.0 to 1.2 mm, the nail correcting device is difficult to attach to such thick nails.
When the distance between the distal edges of the holding teeth is increased so that people with thick nails can use the nail correcting device, the nail correcting device is unsuitable for people having nails with a normal thickness approximately in a range from 0.7 to 1.0 mm, and thus is to be detached from the nail.
In consideration of the fact that nail thickness varies from person to person, plural kinds of nail correcting devices with different distances between the distal edges of the holding teeth may be prepared. However, this results in an increase in the variety of the nail correcting devices and thus in an increase in production costs. Further, it is difficult for a user to choose a suitable nail correcting device.